It is agreed among poultry embryologists that the effect of humidity levels during incubation is much less drastic than that of temperature levels. The humidity level needed to have a large effect on the embryo during incubation is 5-6± %. This does not minimize the importance of humidity during incubation in achieving optimal hatchability and chick quality as the egg needs to lose a certain amount of moisture during incubation

Overuse of drugs on farms can lead to many problems. One way drugs can become ineffective is through microbe resistance. When a flock of birds become sick, one way to fight the illness is with the correct drug. Each time that same drug is used to fight subsequent outbreaks of the same illness; the drug slowly becomes ineffective as microbes become resistant to it.

Our fall 2008 mature pheasant season was going so very well – we had orders for all the birds we had raised, and shipment after shipment of birds were leaving the farm. All during the 2008 fall season of course we heard in the media about the economy was failing – but somehow we misled ourselves to think that we in the gamebird industry were somehow immune. It was the first week of December 2008 when we got our first inkling that something was amiss.

At MacFarlane Pheasants, Inc. we strive to produce the best pheasants in the industry through many innovative practices: our emphasis on breeder selection, hatching egg production and the actual hatching process all focuses toward one goal. To provide our customers with the best potential chick that will grow well through the rearing process and produce a quality pheasant at maturity. All that being said one of our greatest challenges is getting our chicks to our customer’s doors.

I started working at MacFarlane’s in January 2010. I am the Chick Sales Coordinator, which entails taking orders for day old chicks or eggs, processing the orders, arranging the transportation for the chicks once they hatch, and working with the hatchery to guarantee live delivery.

This spring a sizeable undertaking will begin on our farm. I along with several other employees, under the consultation of Chris Theisen, will spearhead a considerable overhaul of many of the flight pens here at MacFarlane Pheasants.

On subject of pen management of pheasants, I am going to lay out some of the ideas and protocols we use here – both earlier season and late. We brood our early in brooder barns, middle and late season chicks the same way – same feed, bird density etc. But we use very different pen management techniques for our early, middle or late season birds.

Coccidia is almost universally present in poultry raising operations. A decreased growth rate, high percentage of visibly sick birds, severe diarrhea, high mortality, and finally depressed feed and water consumption all describe coccidiosis. So what exactly is coccidiosis? Coccidiosis is a single celled intracellular parasite that has one purpose, to invade living cells and then kill them.

There are a tremendous amount of issues that affect the game bird industry. Included are environmental, animal rights, and political issues. No matter what the issue, they all have the one thing in common: They will inevitably have an impact on the success or failure of the game bird industry as a whole.

MacFarlane Pheasants, Inc. has been involved in the Hotel/Restaurant Industry since the early 1990’s. Our goal has always been to provide a high quality, consistent product, from which the continued development of our meat line of pheasants has created a positive impact in this industry.

This past December we experienced a blizzard that opened our eyes further, on the possible damage that a flight pen can experience. I feel obligated to pass along some tips that may help you “survive” a winter storm.

I have worked in the maintenance department for a year and a half now. The majority of my time is spent keeping all of the feeding and ventilation equipment in the brooding barns operating like it should. In early February Troy Cisewski, the Brooder Supervisor, and myself went through all of the barns and checked the equipment and made a list of repairs, preventive maintenance, and improvements that we felt needed to be made

Consumers want to know how their food is raised. Macfarlane Pheasants’ products are naturally produced and our processes are reviewed each year. MacFarlane Pheasants, Inc. recently completed its certification process to be considered All Natural, in this process our facilities are inspected by a third party auditor which validates our all natural status.

MacFarlane Pheasants, like most other business has been affected dramatically in the past 18 months by the recession. Macfarlane Pheasants was able to survive the recession with out lay offs, however, production was cut. By not laying off employees, MacFarlane Pheasants was able to weather the storm through synergy.

As many of us are aware there has been much concern about various poultry diseases in past few years, from Avian Influenza in Asia, to exotic New Castle in California to West Nile virus in the Midwest. What can a gamebird producer do to protect there operation against this?